On the Move

I've been having a little trouble coming up with ideas for blogging about my sister's wedding (hence the no posts in awhile) So I've been looking around at other blogs for new  ideas. It would have been much easier to blog about my own wedding, if only I had this idea a year and a half ago! So instead one blogger said she uses her blog as a scrapbook of sorts. More for her own personal record keeping and photos from her family and I thought that was a superb idea! I used to scrapbook ALL the time and I just don't have the time, (or the patience for that matter) any longer. So enter new age scrapbooking!

So with that, I'm going to start out with our most exciting new life development! WE'RE MOVING! We finally bought a new, bigger and gorgeous home in our dream neighborhood! Its almost move in condition with a few exceptions, the kitchen and bathrooms all need to be majorly updated, but are all usable for the time being! I plan on chronicling our home renovations here. There is nothing better then a great Before & After photo!

Before we even close and make the big move, here are a few photos of the new house!

Exterior (Isn't she beautiful?)

Back Family Room (hubby is turning this into a ultra modern lounge - the only room in the house I gave him full control to decorate. Yikes!)

Entry way and stairway

My favorite part of the new house!

Master Suite (Walk- in closet on the left, bathroom on the right)

My living room (look at all this space, its like a blank slate)

And the kitchen, way to white - will be our first renovation project!

We are so looking forward to making this move! Right now I feel like life is in shambles with half our stuff boxed up in the basement. I'm trying to get organized before I pack up the rest of the house. We're hoping to close around the beginning of October so I have a few short weeks to get my act together. I'm just too excited to start all our new decorating, I don't even want to think about actually moving. I'm not a patient person but we'll be on our way in no time. Fortunately we are not moving far, so packing, organizing and decorating is about all we'll have to worry about!

Let me know if you have any moving tips to share, I'd love to hear what keeps you organized during times of chaos!

Cheers!

Stephanie

 

The Wedding Planner

I'm not very good at this blogging thing just yet. My problem has been trying to find something interesting to blog about. Then while talking to my husband last night, we decided that I need to focus on what I really enjoy doing in my spare time. So we came up with the idea that what I really enjoyed most was planning our wedding last year. I've been married almost a year now, our 1st anniversary is coming up on August 12th. I may be in the minority here but I was in serious wedding planning withdrawal! Until my younger sister announced 2 weeks ago that she was (finally) engaged!! I was ecstatic not only for her and her future hubby, but for the fact that I could help plan another wedding!! She hasn't been to a lot of weddings and her future husband isn't all that into the wedding things so she needs a lot of help. As Matron of Honor and self proclaimed wedding planner, I thought it would be fun to chronicle all the planning. She's on tight budget so I'm going to try and focus on all the plans that could help others plan a wedding on a small dime

I'll start with what we've done so far..... aside from looking at a TON of photos online we haven't done much of anything. My husband's family owns a Banquet place, Classics V Banquets in Amherst, NY, she's about 90% sure that's where the reception will be, but since she hasn't finalized a date yet, that hasn't been decided. She's about 95% sure she'll be using the same DJ I used for my wedding, who was incredibly awesome (not someone who tries to run the show, but involved enough to keep the night flowing smoothly). She's pretty open minded about everything, but extremly indecisive, which I can already tell is going to be the hardest part! One thing she wants that I didn't was to get married in a church. My hubby and I got married in the new Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo, NY. We wanted something unique and modern, sister on the other hand is a bit more traditional. We found that you'll want to make sure when picking a church (if your not a member of  it) you ask about ALL the fees. We talked to a specific church in Buffalo who charged a $600 rental fee, which seemed reasonable compared to some of the other rentals rates out there, but once we started asking questions we found that it didn't include a $250 administrative fee, a $50 fee to be let into the church for the rehearsal,  and candles, flowers and music, were all extra. So be sure to ask lots of questions when picking locations so they don't try and sneak extra fees on you. That's about as far as we've gotten so far. She's definitely thinking next year, so we have lots of time!

In honor of starting my wedding section of the blog I thought I'd post some of my favorites photos from my wedding last year! Enjoy!

Photographer: Andy Buscemi - www.Buscemiphotography.com

Clever Ideas

Since my new obsession with Pintrest, I've been trying all kinds of neat and creative things that I found through the site. Everything from DIY, to recipes, to clever things that make life easier. Today I thought I would start with something super simple, and I will continue to share the creative and clever ideas that other people have come up with that work for me!
Today's thought seems too easy. It's called the $5.00 savings plan. It works like this, every time a $5.00 bill comes into your possession instead of throwing it into your wallet to spend again, put it in a jar or envelope. You'll be amazed at how quickly it adds up. Put a final destination on the money, like a vacation or that expensive ipad,  then you aren't as tempted to dip into when you need some quick cash. I've just started this past weekend and I already have $20 in my envelope!

Here's the site I found this on, MommySavers There's some good ideas on the site! I tend to be more of a credit/debit spender, but I've read that people tend to spend less money when they are using cash so I'm gonna give it a try, plus I'm, sure I'll find more $5 bills then if I used plastic all the time.

Photo credit: www.mommysavers.com

Happy Saving!!

Cheer!
Stephanie